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Cynthia Bush: 662-303-6625 [email protected] Tammy Bobo: 662-202-It’s fair to wonder what the Cowboys’
fresh signing of linebacker Jaylon Smith
to an eye-popping contract extension
means for Ezekiel Elliott.
Elliott, arguably the Cowboys’ best
player and reigning NFL rushing champ,
is training with Hall of Famer Marshall
Faulk at an exotic resort in Cabo San Lu-
cas while his holdout approaches the
one-month marker with apparently lit-
tle movement in contract negotiations.
Smith, one of the most inspiring
comeback stories in the entire NFL after
rebounding from a career-threatening
knee injury, is suddenly the league’s
third highest-paid inside linebacker.
The 6-year, $68.4 million deal he signed
on Tuesday guarantees $35.4 million
and averages $11.4 million, nearly twice
the average on the existing contract that
Elliott is trying to replace.
Funny, how the money can flow in
the NFL.
The Cowboys have been engaged for
months in stagnant extension talks
with Elliott, Dak Prescott and Amari
Cooper. Smith’s deal, though, came to-
gether in a matter of days.
How should Elliott take that?
“It’s a zero-sum game,” Stephen
Jones, Dallas’ executive vice president,
told USA TODAY Sports this weekend.
“There’s only so many dollars you’re
working with. But we still feel very opti-
mistic that we can do these three deals
and they can end up like Jaylon – very
happy to be here for a long time.”
Of course, there’s a counter-message
from the Elliott camp as it looks to re-
portedly reset the running back market
and is perhaps still seething over the
tongue-in-cheek, “Zeke who?” com-
ment recently from Cowboys owner Jer-
ry Jones.
“Jerry’s the best owner in the league.
He just has to act like it,” Faulk told USA
TODAY Sports. “He’s taken risks and
changed the business model before in
the league.”
Faulk mentioned how Jones’ NFL leg-
acy took root in the 1990s by bucking the
odds with Pepsi and Nike marketing
deals, on top of his impact in opening up
network TV deals.
“Don’t stop being a pioneer now,”
Faulk added, alluding to Elliott’s case.
“Don’t change now. He didn’t call the
Vikings and 49ers and tell them, ‘Don’t
reset the quarterback market.’ ”
Examining Elliott’s caseIn a what-can-you-do-now business,
Elliott’s case is bolstered by three key
factors:
zTwo NFL rushing titles in his three
seasons.
zHeavy investments by the Cowboys
to build one of the NFL’s best offensive
lines.
zA quarterback, Prescott, whose
next contract will certainly exceed
whatever Elliott gets ... but is hardly
elite.
Maybe the stalemate gets resolved in
the coming days, with the clock ticking
toward the start of the regular season
and Dallas – no matter how impressive
rookie Tony Pollard (Tony who?) has
looked during the vanilla summer exhi-
bitions – sorely needing the player who
drives its offense if it will have a legiti-
mate shot of turning last season’s NFC
East crown into a Super Bowl run.
Sometimes these deals can come to-
gether in 24 hours when there’s dead-
line pressure.
Or maybe this one lingers, like the
Emmitt Smith talks did a generation ago
when it took something drastic (a 0-
start for a defending Super Bowl champ)
to move the needle.
Right now, though, it’s a big game of
chicken played against the backdrop of
sorry market conditions for elite run-
ning backs. While the Cowboys connect
the dots to other key players they seek to
lock up to long-term deals, Elliott’s case
is undoubtedly more complicated by the
position he plays.Where is the money?How tough is it for a star running
back to get paid?
Consider that the big extension that
made Rams star Todd Gurley the NFL’s
highest-paid running back – 4 years,
$57.5 million with $45 million in guar-
antees – ranks just 64th in the NFL for
average salary ($14.375 million), accord-
ing to Spotrac.com.
Just three running backs – Gurley,
Le’Veon Bell and David Johnson – rank
among the top 100 for average pay. It’s
no wonder that Elliott reportedly is
looking to top the running back pay
scale.
Meanwhile, another prominent hold-
out running back, Melvin Gordon, has
run into a brick wall of his own while
trying to land a new deal with the Char-
gers. And Gordon, toiling for a team that
spins around elite quarterback Philip
Rivers, has significantly less leverage
than Elliott.
“Our market as running backs is so
low,” Cardinals star David Johnson told
USA TODAY Sports.
Johnson got a 3-year, $39 million deal
last year that guarantees $31.9 million
and averages $13 million as the third-
highest-paid back. Bell sat out the 2018
season with the Steelers, then landed a
4-year, $52.5 million free agent pact
with the Jets that guaranteed $27 mil-
lion and averages $13.125 million.
“Everybody else is below $10 million,”
Johnson said. “It’s crazy that they value
us so much – they want us to be running
backs and receivers – but when it getsdown to our contract it’s different.”
Johnson is undoubtedly pulling for
Elliott and Gordon, whose current
$2.67 million average salary ranks 27th
in average pay for running backs.
By contrast, 18 quarterbacks are
earning at least $20 million on average
and 24 wide receivers are topping
$10 million a year.Position disadvantage?Running backs have the shortest
shelf life and the most wear-and-tear,
which clearly affect the ability of the
best backs to cash in with the type of
big-money deals showered on others.
Johnson aptly pointed to the average
scale for all positions as a sobering re-
minder for running backs: Only long-
snappers ($794,602) and fullbacks
($972,555) earn less on average than
running backs ($1.28 million), a pattern
than surely flows upward when the top
backs negotiate for new deals.
Sure, it’s a quarterback’s world. The
NFL is a passing league with no appar-
ent end to the evolution as passing
numbers keep escalating (although it’s
interesting that when teams are push-
ing on playoff runs we still hear so much
about needing a strong running game).
Quarterbacks are the marquee men sold
to the consumers and protected like en-
dangered species by the rules.
Even so, something is out of whack
when the value of average quarterbacks
(see Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo)
dwarfs more-proven players at other
positions.
And there are always exceptions. You
can’t blame Elliott for trying to strike
when he’s hot. Running backs have al-
ways had a quicker impact in jumping to
the NFL level because their skills – hit
the hole and run – transfer more readily
than that of other players with a steeper
developmental curve.
Conversely, they are stung by the
thinking of teams realizing their injury
risk. The offseason buzz surrounding
Gurley, just months after the contract
splash, has involved whether he’ll be as
dominant of a player after his stretch
run last season was hampered by a knee
injury.
If Elliott doesn’t cash in now, tomor-
row is hardly promised. That the Cow-
boys are willing to negotiate despite the
two years left on Elliott’s rookie pact (re-
portedly their offer would put him
among the top three running backs) is
an acknowledgment that he deserves a
raise. But the issue for running backs
has always been deeper than that in
putting a price tag on it.Zeke’s quest for big money hurt by market
Jarrett Bell
Columnist
USA TODAYThe Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott, eluding Rams safety John Johnson, rushed for 1,
yards and six TDs in the 2018 regular season.GARY A. VASQUEZ/USA TODAY SPORTSTakuma Sato was vilified on social
media, chastised by some of his fellow
drivers and pretty much trashed by a
majority of the racing public during the
first 48 hours after a frightening first-lap
crash at Pocono Raceway.
On Saturday night, he started fifth,
nearly crashed into the two guys he tan-
gled with the weekend before and
quickly found himself in last place.
But Takuma Sato displayed a come-
back for the ages at World Wide Tech-
nology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, as
he shrugged off the criticism, fought his
way back from the early hole he’d dug
himself into, and scored one of the most
improbable and emotional victories of
his career.
“Nothing can top the Indianapolis
500 win, but this was an unbelievable
emotional boost,” said the 2017 Indy
winner after holding off Ed Carpenter by
a car length for his second win of 2019. “I
got unbelievable support from my team
and a lot of the media, and I’m just so
proud to be part of the RLL team and
this series. Tonight was just so special.”
A week ago at Pocono, on the opening
lap as the field headed into Turn 2, Sato
appeared to swerve into Alex Rossi, who
collected Ryan Hunter-Reay, James
Hinchcliffe and Felix Rosenqvist. Sato’s
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda got up-
side down, its driver escaping physical
injury but later pummeled on social
media. The criticism even got racial for
the 42-year-old from Japan.
“A lot of people judged on TV from
one angle, and it looks like I turned into
Alex. But that wasn’t true,” said Sato,who was penalized by the NTT IndyCar
Series for avoidable contact. “The evi-
dence showed I held my line and drove
straight and at the end of the day we had
an accident. I apologized for the situa-
tion, especially involving the champi-
onship. But it was clear other drivers
moved up and we had an accident. I
could have given even more room mov-
ing to the right, and perhaps that’s what
I should have done, but I just think it
shows we need to give each other more
room in those type of situations.”
RLL took the rare step of issuing a
news release supporting its driver, and
an in-car video seemed to support Sa-
to’s claim.
During driver introductions at Gate-
way, Sato received a rousing ovation
with very few boos, and that lifted his
spirits going into the green flag.
After his near tangle with Rossi and
RHR, the handling on his Panasonic
Honda went away and he dropped back
steadily. On his first pit stop he was last,
and no one could have foreseen getting
back to the top 10, let alone victory lane.
After that, though, he combined a
good pace, a little off-sequence pittingand a very fortuitous yellow to some-
how steal the win. When Sebastian
Bourdais tapped the wall on Lap 190, Sa-
to, Carpenter and Tony Kanaan were the
only cars on the lead lap because every-
one else had pitted a few laps earlier.
That caution gave them track posi-
tion and the top three spots, and Sato
staved off Carpenter’s late charge.
And just like that, last week’s zero be-
came a hero, so to speak.Sato savors redemptive victory
Robin Miller
Racer.com | USA TODAY Network
NTT IndyCar Series
points leadersTop 10 through Saturday- Josef Newgarden ............................. 563
- Simon Pagenaud .............................. 525
- Alexander Rossi ................................ 517
- Scott Dixon ........................................ 493
- Will Power ........................................... 416
- Takuma Sato ...................................... 382
- Ryan Hunter-Reay ............................ 368
- Graham Rahal .....................................
- Santino Ferrucci ............................... 326
- Felix Rosenqvist ............................. 324
Takuma Sato celebrates with his crew
after earning his fifth NTT IndyCar
Series win. JEFF ROBERSON/AP